Genevieve rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. The last two days were starting to take a toll on her. She looked over at Alex who was gulping down yet another cup of coffee. She tried to shake the tiredness out of her head.
“Okay, let’s review what we know.” She walked over to the whiteboard behind them. Photos of Delamont and Hartfeld were held in place with little magnets. Off to the side, they had written the names of the athletes, Curtis Whitham, and Marjorie Pryor. Marjorie’s name had a question mark next to it. Next to Whitham’s name, she had written financial problems. Niles’ name had an arrow going from it to Marjorie’s with another question mark above it. She drew another arrow from Hartfeld to Delamont.
“Well, we learned a lot from that video,” Alex said slowly. “That was one crazy guy.”
Genevieve shuddered a bit. In the video, Hartfeld had confessed to murdering Delamont after the sports medicine doctor had gone to him for help regarding the nutritional supplement. Delamont had called Hartfeld in a panic after Ithaca’s death. He admitted to taking the powder from Hartfeld’s lab over several months while he was caring for the hamsters. Hartfeld observed that his friend was remorseful for stealing and betraying their friendship, but he was too enraged to forgive him. The project was never intended to be studied in humans. Obviously, it wasn’t safe. Plus, humans were too greedy and too performance driven to see his study for its ingenuity. They would quickly become fixated on its potential to create super athletes.
Delamont had mentioned to Hartfeld that one of his athletes had requested an appointment for the following morning. He told his friend that he’d brought the powder home and would return it to him the following day. He had suggested that he join him for dinner on Saturday night, but Hartfeld couldn’t wait. He already knew about the early meeting and decided to get there first. He entered the gym from the back entrance and waited outside Delamont’s office. When his friend arrived, his anger renewed. If the police discovered that the kid had been using his supplement, he’d lose his job and all of his research would end! He forced Delamont into his office and grabbed the first thing he saw—the diving trophy—and swung it at Delamont’s head. Immediately horrified, he wiped the trophy with his shirt to remove his fingerprints but left the blood on the small stars. He hadn’t touched anything else in the office, so he quickly left and hoped that no one would see him exiting the building.
From there, he drove over to Delamont’s house to retrieve his precious supplement. He knew where the extra key was hidden and let himself in. The container with the powder was sitting on the kitchen counter. He grabbed it and left the house, locking the door behind him. Hartfeld then told the camera that someone must have seen him leaving Delamont’s house. Whoever that was had started trying to blackmail him.
Genevieve looked at the board again. “My money is on Whitham now. He wanted that powder back. Without the super athletes, his programs would start to lose, which would cost the school scholarship money. He was probably frantic to get that back.” Her phone buzzed with a text. Cari.
“Who was that?” Alex asked. “Never mind. I agree, though, I want to talk to that Niles kid again. Did his lawyer ever show up?”
“No. Something about his dad not wanting to spend the money on it. He’s in lockup right now. Probably really mad by this point. Without a lawyer, we still can’t talk to him. I’m not sure if he wants a court-appointed attorney or not.” She paused. “That was my friend, Cari. The girlfriend might know why Niles was chasing her. Why don’t we bring her in and see what she can tell us?”
Alex frowned, then shrugged. “Fine, but I don’t like working with reporters.”
Genevieve called Cari. “Hey. Is your new friend awake, yet? I know it’s early. Sorry…ok, great. Can you meet us at the station in half an hour? Perfect. See you soon.” She ended the call.
“They’re already awake and they’ll be here in a few minutes.”
* * * * * * * * * *
Cari pulled into the parking spot outside of the police station and looked over at Marjorie. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
She nodded. “Yes. I know Stephen really respected Dr. D. Regardless of how I feel about the man pushing what is effectively drugs onto students, he didn’t deserve to die. Let’s go talk to your friend and her partner.”
Cari led Marjorie up the steps and into the precinct. Genevieve was waiting for them at the front desk. She gave them both visitor badges and walked them back to a conference room.
“Hi, Miss Pryor, my name is Detective Viacorte. This is my partner, Detective Runimoss. We just have a few questions for you this morning. Before we start, can we get you anything? Water? Coffee? I’d offer you a donut, but that’s actually just a bad stereotype. I could send someone for a breakfast taco though?” She smiled.
“I’m fine, thanks. Ms. Turnlyle and I went by Starbucks already.” She lifted the iconic cup at Genevieve.
“Oh, great! Okay, then, have a seat.” Genevieve walked around to the other side of the table and sat down next to her partner while Cari and Marjorie sat down.
“Yesterday evening, a young man was chasing you across campus. That man’s name is Andrew Niles. Are you familiar with him?”
“Yes, I mean, no. Not really. My roommate went on a date with him yesterday. She thought he was nice and was really touched that he had expressed concern for me since Stephen had died. As you know, I got spooked by you seeing the athlete at the restaurant last night, so I asked Ms. Turnlyle to take me home.
“I let my roommate know that I was home and then decided to soak in a bubble bath to try to relax. It seemed like everything was happening at once and I just wanted a little break, you know? But then my roommate called and we talked. I ended up telling her about Stephen and the powder, but I never thought she would tell someone else. I heard her come into the apartment and she was on the phone. She told the person on the line everything that I’d said! It was that guy—you said that his name was Andrew? Yeah, she told him what I said and I don’t know why that scared me so much, but it did. I just took off and told her not to open the door to anyone. Thankfully, Ms. Turnlyle got there when she did.”
“Let’s back up for a second. This powder you mentioned, where did Stephen get it?”
“From Dr. D. He told me that it was something he took once a month. He was adamant that it wasn’t steroids, but it all sounded weird to me. Is that what killed him?”
Genevieve glanced at her partner who nodded. “Miss Pryor—”
“Please, just call me Marjorie.”
“Okay. Marjorie. The scientist who developed the powder never imagined that it would be given to humans. He developed it to try to understand some kind of metabolic pathway that is beyond my biology knowledge. He studied it in hamsters. The hamsters that received it had more stamina and more speed. Dr. Delamont learned about this through his friendship with the scientist and decided that giving it to some of his star athletes couldn’t hurt anything. He did this without the scientist’s knowledge. Unfortunately, the supplement wasn’t safe for anyone with an underlying condition.”
“But Stephen was healthy! He always passed the athletic physical; he was never sick!” Marjorie cried.
“We haven’t been able to confirm this yet, but the scientist is speculating that Stephen had something called—” Genevieve checked her notes. “Rhabdomyolysis. It has to do with what happens when you overwork your muscles and they start to break down. Honestly, I don’t understand it at all.”
“I want to talk to him,” Marjorie stated adamantly.
“You want to talk to…? Genevieve asked.
“The scientist. I want to talk to him.”
“Unfortunately, that isn’t possible. He was killed last night.”
Marjorie grew pale. Cari’s eyes widened. “You’re saying…?”
Genevieve nodded. “His death is definitely related to these other two. I think we’re narrowing down the suspect list. Are you sure we can’t get you some water, Marjorie?”
She shook her head slowly as tears dropped off her cheeks and onto the table. “I just want to go home.”
Cari reached for the young woman’s hand and gave it a squeeze before releasing it. She looked at Genevieve and raised her eyebrows questioningly. “What do you think?”
“Miss Pryor—Marjorie. I would rather you stay here until we get a few more things squared away. I’m not sure who else might be looking for you and I want you to be safe.” Genevieve responded.
Marjorie’s shoulders sagged. “Fine. I have class at ten. Can I at least go to my classes?”
“We’ll talk about it. For now, my partner and I need to go speak to someone else. Hang tight, okay?”